Purism (company)
![]() | |
![]() | |
Company type | Social purpose corporation |
---|---|
Industry | |
Founded | November 19, 2014 |
Founder | Todd Weaver |
Headquarters | South San Francisco, California |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | |
Products | Laptops, smartphones, tablet computers, handhelds |
Revenue | US$1 million (2015) |
Number of employees | 27 (2018)[1] |
Website | puri |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Todd_Weaver_DSC_9703.jpg/220px-Todd_Weaver_DSC_9703.jpg)
Purism, SPC is a computer technology social purpose corporation based in South San Francisco, California[2] and registered in the state of Washington.[3] Purism manufactures the Librem personal computing devices with a focus on software freedom, computer security, and Internet privacy.
History
Purism was founded in 2014[3] with the start of a crowdfunding campaign for the Librem 15,[4] an attempt to manufacture an Intel-based high-end laptop for Linux with "almost no proprietary software".[5][6][7][8] A second campaign[9] funded development of a 13-inch model with hardware switches to disable the microphone and camera as a privacy feature.[10] Kill switches were also added to the 15-inch model.
The two campaigns raised US$1,052,174 from 1,042 initial backers, and production began at the end of 2015.[11] In 2017 Purism announced its transition from a build to order to a build to stock order fulfillment model.[12]
Purism reincorporated as a social purpose corporation in February 2017[13] and announced the change in May.[14][15]
On August 24 2017, Purism announced plans to build a smartphone, the Librem 5,[16] with a baseband processor separate from the main CPU, with hardware kill switches for the baseband, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, camera, and microphone, and running only free and open-source software. A 60-day crowdfunding campaign raised US$1.5 million for the phone.[17]
Products
PureOS
Purism manages development of PureOS, a fully free Linux distribution based on Debian. PureOS mostly ships with software from the Debian software repository but has all software removed that violates Purism's guidelines and the GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines[18]. PureOS was endorsed by the Free Software Foundation in December 2017.[19] Librem laptops ship with PureOS by default and an optional Qubes OS Universal Serial Bus (USB) drive.[20][21][22] Purism says that it is easy for Librem device owners to install alternative Linux distributions and that owners have the freedom to install any operating system that they desire.[23]
Librem hardware
Librem has been the brand name used by Purism for all of their computer hardware products since the firm's first website in late 2014.[24] The name is based on the French word libre for the English word free as used in the term logiciel libre for free software.
Purism devices feature hardware kill switches to allow users to shut off the camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular or mobile broadband modem on devices that have one (or can be purchased air gapped).
Laptops: Librem 13 and 15
Purism's first products were two laptop computers. Since late 2015, they have made laptops of two sizes: Librem 13 and 15, featuring a 13 and a 15 inch screen, respectively. These products ship with Purism's own operating system, PureOS, a derivative of Debian GNU/Linux, and an optional Qubes OS USB drive.[20][21][22]
Purism does its best to remove Intel's Management Engine from its Librem laptops, considering it a security problem.[25] Still, it was not able to completely avoid use of proprietary BIOS firmware, earning it criticism from the Coreboot and Libreboot projects (which are working on completely free firmware, but as of 2015 had not yet achieved support of the contemporary hardware that Librem was using).[26] Since summer 2017, new Librem laptops are shipped with coreboot as their standard BIOS, and updates are available for all older models.[27]
Comparison of laptops
Librem model | Coreboot version | Intel ME | Release | Max RAM (GB) |
---|---|---|---|---|
15 v1 | 32[citation needed] | |||
13 v1 | 4.6-4.8[28] | October 2015[29] | 32[citation needed] | |
15 v2 | 4.7[30] | February 2018[30] | 16[citation needed] | |
13 v2 | 4.7[30] | February 2018[30] | 16[citation needed] | |
15 v3 | 4.6-4.8[28] | 32 | ||
13 v3 | 4.6-4.8[28] | 32 | ||
15 v4 | Disabled[31][dubious – discuss] | 32 | ||
13 v4 | Disabled[31][dubious – discuss] | 32 |
Tablet: Librem 11
Purism has proposed a 2-in-1 PC, a convertible, hybrid, tablet-to-laptop computer: the Librem 11, sometimes termed Librem 10 or 12. It would have an 11-inch touchscreen in an 11.6-inch body with a detachable keyboard, and an optional docking station. Development on the device began in April 2016[32] and was suspended in October 2018 to focus on the Librem 5 smartphone.[33]
Smartphone: Librem 5
The Librem 5 is Purism's first smartphone. They began a funding campaign on 24 August 2017, for a $599 "security and privacy focused phone".[16] The 60-day funding campaign aimed to collect US$1.5 million, however the goal was surpassed two weeks early and concluded with US$2,677,609.10 raised, 78% over the goal.[17][34] The phone's operating system is entirely free software: it comes with PureOS pre-installed but also supports Ubuntu Touch.[35] Further, the baseband processor is separated from the CPU main bus and instead connected via a fast USB interface, thus isolated from the main CPU RAM bus. Also, the phone features hardware kill switches for the isolated baseband processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, camera, and microphone.[36] The firmware for the cellular modem on the phone is proprietary.[37] On September 24, 2019, Purism announced that the first batch of Librem 5 phones had started shipping.[38] On December 6, 2019, Purism announced Librem 5 USA–the same phone, with Made in USA electronic fabrication.[39]
Librem Key
The Librem Key is a hardware USB security token with many features, including integration with tamper-evident Heads Firmware. Heads helps to ensure that the Librem laptop's BIOS was not altered since the last laptop boot. The Librem Key also holds a one-time password storage (3x HOTP (RFC 4226), 15 x TOTP (RFC 6238)), integrated password manager (16 entries), 40 kbit/s true random number generator, and tamper-resistant smart card. The key supports type A USB 2.0, has dimensions of 48 mm × 19 mm × 7 mm (1.89 in × 0.75 in × 0.28 in), and weighs 6 grams (0.21 oz).[40]
Librem One
Librem One is a paid subscription, free-software social-networking suite launched April 30, 2019[41] to bring decentralized, privacy-respecting applications to a wider user base. The first components released were Librem Mail supporting OpenPGP standards using a K-9-based client; Librem Tunnel based on OpenVPN; Librem Social microblogging using Mastodon server and Tusky-based client software federated via the ActivityPub protocol[42], and Librem Chat using Riot.im software federated via Matrix and XMPP[42].
See also
References
- ^ "The Core Team". Purism. September 2018. Retrieved 2018-09-11.
- ^ "Contact". Purism. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- ^ a b "Registration Detail". Washington Secretary of State. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
- ^ Weaver, Todd (2016-08-30). "Librem 15: A Laptop That Respects Your Rights". Crowd Supply. Portland, Oregon. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
- ^ Gallagher, Sean (2014-11-19). "Crowdfunding project promises a "laptop that respects essential freedoms"". Ars Technica. Wired Media Group. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- ^ Biggs, John (2015-01-23). "Purism Aims To Build A Philosophically Pure Laptop". TechCrunch. Verizon Media. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- ^ Low, Cherlynn (2014-11-19). "Librem 15: Sexy Open Source Laptop Wants Your Money". Laptop Mag. New York City, New York: Purch (Future plc). Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- ^ Hoffman, Chris (2014-11-19). "Purism Librem 15 Linux laptop blends high-end hardware with totally free software". PC World. San Francisco, California, U.S.: IDG Communications. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
- ^ Weaver, Todd. "Librem 13: A Laptop That Respects Your Rights". Crowd Supply. Portland, Oregon. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- ^ Casey, Henry T. (2015-06-19). "Purism Puts Physical Kill Switches on Latest Laptop". Laptop Mag. New York City, New York: Purch (Future plc). Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- ^ Weaver, Todd (2015-12-28). "Purism Librem Shipping Status". Crowd Supply. Portland, Oregon. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- ^ Weaver, Todd (2016-12-15). "Growing to Ship from Inventory in 2017". Purism. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
- ^ "Social purpose". Purism. Retrieved 2017-05-24.
- ^ Ozeki, Ken (2017-05-08). "Purism Becomes a Social Purpose Corporation". Digital Journal (Press release). Retrieved 2017-05-24.
- ^ "Purism now a Social Purpose Corporation – What this means for you and us". Purism. 2017-05-06. Retrieved 2017-05-24.
- ^ a b Moon, Mariella (2017-08-24). "Purism will try its hand at security-focused smartphones". Engadget. Verizon Media. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ a b Sneddon, Joey (2017-10-09). "Success – Linux Phone Crowdfunding Campaign Reaches Its Goal". OMG! Ubuntu!. Ohso. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "List of Free GNU/Linux Distributions". GNU Project. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Robertson, Donald (2017-12-21). "FSF adds PureOS to list of endorsed GNU/Linux distributions". Free Software Foundation. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ a b "Librem 13". Purism. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
- ^ a b "Librem 15". Purism. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
- ^ a b Carbone, Michael (2015-12-09). "Partnering with Purism and the first Qubes-certified laptop". Qubes OS. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
- ^ "FAQ". Purism. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
- ^ "Purism". Purism. 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-11-21. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
- ^ Claburn, Thomas (21 Oct 2017). "Wanna exorcise Intel's secretive hidden CPU from your hardware? Meet Purism's laptops". www.theregister.co.uk.
- ^ Hoffman, Chris; PCWorld | (2015-08-07). "Why Linux enthusiasts are arguing over Purism's sleek, idealistic Librem laptops". PCWorld. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
- ^ "Downloading and installing coreboot on Purism Librem devices". Purism. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
- ^ a b c "Wiki". wiki.puri.sm. Archived from the original on 2019-05-25. Retrieved 2019-06-30.
- ^ "Purism's Librem 13 Linux Laptop Is Sleek, Private and Secure". Retrieved 2019-12-21.
- ^ a b c d Alaoui, Youness (2018-02-22). "February 2018 Coreboot update now available". Purism. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
- ^ a b "The Purism Freedom Roadmap: Road to FSF endorsement, and Beyond". Purism. 2018-04-04. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
- ^ Baldwin, Roberto (2016-05-19). "Purism expands its line of privacy-focused devices to include a 2-in-1". Engadget. Verizon Media. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "Tabling the Librem tablet". Purism. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
- ^ "Librem 5 – A Security and Privacy Focused Phone". Purism. Retrieved 2018-09-11.
- ^ Verma, Adarsh (2018-04-25). "Open Source Smartphone Librem 5 Will Officially Support Ubuntu Touch". Fossbytes. Retrieved 2018-09-11.
- ^ Byfield, Bruce. "Librem 5 and the Challenge of the Free Phone". Linux Magazine. Retrieved 2018-09-11.
- ^ FaerberCTO, Nicole (2018-09-04). "Progress update from the Librem 5 hardware department". Purism. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
- ^ PurismBeautiful; Secure; Laptops, Privacy-Respecting; Phones (2019-09-24). "First Librem 5 Smartphones are Shipping". Purism. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
{{cite web}}
:|first3=
has generic name (help) - ^ Librem 5 USA.[1]
- ^ "Librem Key". Purism. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
- ^ "Librem One by Purism -". archive.is. April 30, 2019. Retrieved 2020-03-23.
- ^ a b "Librem One by Purism - We don't look at your junk... or anything else". librem.one.
External links
- Official website
- Purism on Mastodon.social
- Computer companies of the United States
- Computer hardware companies
- Consumer electronics brands
- Free culture movement
- Linux
- Manufacturing companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Online retailers of the United States
- Open-source hardware
- Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
- 2014 establishments in California